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Re: Frames from Western Bee Supply

I'm with JL on this, pay the extra nickle.

Once upon a time the diff. between budget and commercial was size and condition of knots or woodwork irregularities. Now budget gets its own grade of wood, the open ends on the box cuts look like larger cells and more rapid growth.........if you dip your frames might not matter though.

imo its a nickle well spent for the diff. in what i got years ago and what i got last yr.

Re: Frames from Western Bee Supply

Easy Johnny you are the one that said they were .53 not me. I had to go back to figure out how I touched a raw nerve with some, perhaps I should never have stated that since the Dadant catalog shows a .05 price difference between the two grades it wouldnt be worth it to me except I stand by that statement. Perhaps I shouldnt have quoted the 5,000 prices but I know them to be accurate as of about a month ago (it may have fluctuated a few cents recently) but the only way to find out for sure is to talk directly to them and get a current quote, things can change pretty quickly. Budget/economy grades are always subject to availability and price fluctuations, no doubt if you had known they were going to be cutting prices like this you would have held off on your purchase and saved another $500 but it may be just as likely that their latest lumber purchases graded out better than expected and almost none would be available. As far as the .42 goes it sounds like its probably a pretty good deal but if I might paraphrase Forrest Gump "budget frames are like a box of chocolates you never know what you'll get". Yes I have bought them in the past, sometimes they are pretty good, sometimes they are pretty good if you have have the time and patience to do a little picking, choosing, and extra gluing and sometimes enough of it ends up in the wood stove that it simply isnt worth the price. If this offends anyone then I am hereby issuing my second apology in this thread.

Re: Frames from Western Bee Supply

>If I'm not mistaken I believe their wooden ware is mostly Dadant stuff, including their frames..

They used to be two different companies. Eventually (sometime between the late 70's and the late 90's) I believe Dadant bought Western Bee Supply. So Dadant's woodenware is produced by Dadant's subsidiary, Western Bee Supply which also competes with the parent company...

Re: Frames from Western Bee Supply

Browning Cut Stock has 6 1/4" #1 grade frames at $.48 each no matter what on quantity ordered. 9 1/8" #1 grade frames are $.50 each.
Best thing is I can drive about 1 hr. and pick them up.
But I guess I can drive 3hrs. the opposite direction and be at Western Bee as well.
I like the prices on Brownings med. supers at $5.15 each, not bad!
I could not cut box joints for this cheap in numbers!

Re: Frames from Western Bee Supply

We purchase 22,000 of them in 2010 of which 7-10% were unusable. We have a silver queen uncapper and they are bowed enough to take a knife out. We burned them after being unable to get any kind of a refund or exchange. Most of the warping came after they were put together and it didn't matter what size the frames were, deep-ill.- or 7-5/8. As we run them through the system and before we discard them, we are going to take pictures and post them for others to see. Should have done this earlier.

Re: Frames from Western Bee Supply

fAIR DISCLOSURE and crow taste in my mouth as a western bee cheerleader. I just put together a small batch of western bee 9 5/8 boxes commercial grade and they are disappointing. The milling is off slightly on the joints and it slows you down having to check to see if things need trimmed before you bang them together. The pre drilled holes to keep the wood from splitting are all over the place. You can't just go on remote control, you have to decide every nail whether to use the hole. If you don't you get a lot of nails out the side. I know the big boys all use staplers and thats not an issue for them. The wood is not the quality I used to get from them. I wonder if it was fire or beetle salvage a year too long in the forest? The budget frames I got are no trouble for a hobbyist, but I guess with automated machinery, some could be unusable becaue of the top bar warp. Nothing like the high percentage some found, but I can see they would cause trouble for part time help. Quality pays if you can afford it.

Re: Frames from Western Bee Supply

Al: Sounds pretty frustrating. One suggestion is to get the new style serrated knife in your silver queen, those warped top bars will go through without catching on the blade. Been there and done that with the old style blade.

"People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe."- Andy Rooney